Police warn criminals 'we will take your money as well as your liberty'.

Convicted drug dealer Babar Malik was ordered to pay more than £15,000.

Four men jailed following a police drugs operation have been ordered to pay £35,000 deemed to be the profits of crime.

One of them, said to be one of Reading's leading drug dealers, also has a £70,000 order hanging over him if police can prove he has assets to that value.

Babar Malik, of Coalport Way, Tilehurst, admitted to conspiring to supply cocaine and heroin and two counts of possessing criminal property known to be the proceeds of criminal conduct in December 2013.

Reading Crown Court heard the 31-year-old boasted his heroin came 'straight from the mountains of Afghanistan' and Judge Peter Ross described his as one of the biggest drug dealers in Reading when he jailed him for nine years in January.

A large amount of cash and a Rolex watch worth £9,000 was found at Malik's address which were seized under proceeds of crime legislation.

A confiscation hearing at the same court last Tuesday accepted he had made £82,812 from his drug dealing and a confiscation order for that amount was granted.

However, the court heard his only available assets total £15.025 which must be paid within three months or he will have to serve a further nine months in jail and still pay the cash.

A confiscation order for the full amount was granted if police can prove he has sufficient assets which can be seized.

Three brothers were also jailed as a result of the police operation, known as Operation Saffron.

Adeel Tahir, 31, of Westbrook Road, West Reading, was sentenced to five years jail for possession of a sawn off shotgun in February after he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

The court heard DNA evidence linked him to the firearm which was found under a spare tyre in a parked car.

But he was later caught attempting to pervert the course of justice by arranging an associate to offer a false excuse for the presence of his DNA on the weapon.

Waqas Tahir, 26, and Hassan Tahir, 30, both of Greencroft Gardens, Calcot, also admitted their part in the scam and were sentenced to five years each in April.

A hearing at Reading Crown Court on June 27 ordered £20,180 found hidden in the bathroom of their property to be forfeited.

The cash is believed to have been stored to pay bribes to associates in the firearms offence.

Detective Constable Rob Snell, investigating officer in Operation Saffron, said; "This result should serve as a warning to criminals that we won't just take your liberty from you, we will also seize any assets which we believe have been made through crime."